STRANGE DOUBLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20261, 9 November 1935, Page 17

STRANGE DOUBLE

UNUSUAL FEATURES OF EXTORTION CASE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 8, 10.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 7. One of the most unusual of extortion cases, and notable because it involved the cinema comedienne Thelma Todd, was revealed to-day with the arrest by agents of the Federal Department of Justice, of Edward Schiffert, aged 26, for attempting to obtain 10,000 dollars from the screen star. The circumstances involved in the case were almost unbelievable. Schiffert, who gave himself up, had great difficulty in convincing the authorities that he was the culprit, since another man Harry Schimanski, a janitor in a flat where Schiffert lived, was arrested last August and charged with the crime. An extended examination showed that both men have handwriting between which experts were unable to distinguish, and which was exactly alike in the notes sent to Miss Todd. The voices of both men are also strangely alike. Because the notes continued to be received by the actress even after Schimanski’s arrest, Justice agents are now convinced that Schiffert and not the janitor sent them.